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Can Technology Prevent Cops From Forgetting To Turn On Their Body Cameras? (fastcompany.com)
tedlistens writes from a report via Fast Company: Axon, Taser's growing police camera division, has announced a new wireless sensor for gun and Taser holsters that can detect when a weapon is drawn and automatically activate all nearby cameras. The sensor, Signal Sidearm, is part of a suite of products aimed at reducing the possibility that officers will fail to switch on their cameras during encounters with the public. It happens more than it should: Last year in Chicago, for instance, an officer apparently forgot to turn on his camera before fatally shooting and killing an unarmed 18-year-old named Paul O'Neal. Taser isn't alone in trying to address this and other technical and procedural issues with cameras, but reformers emphasize that just as body cameras won't solve problems with policing, new sensors won't prevent officers from failing to record. Fast Company adds: "Automatically-activated cameras won't be completely effective at providing oversight of police encounters: As happened when Baton Rouge police shot Alton Sterling last year, cameras can fall off during physical encounters, a problem that Taser has worked to address. They can also malfunction, or videos can be deleted. And civil liberties advocates complain that cameras are only as effective as the rules that guide their use: [...] the ACLU has complained that current city policy allowing officers to switch cameras off for privacy reasons gives police too much discretion over when to record. Other issues with cameras being resolved at the local level include the heavy costs of cloud video storage, and the question of whether officers are allowed to view their footage immediately after violent encounters -- a privilege not extended to the public."
Most police cameras are actually constantly recording, and preserve the X minutes of video recorded prior to being turned on.
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Yes. The system should be designed so that everything is recorded and encrypted with one of a rolling set of asymmetric keys. Nothing can be played back without accessing the decryption key, which should not be available to the individual police precinct without oversight. Everything recorded should be stored and, unless needed, deleted a month later. Any decryption keys that are not used within this period should be deleted without ever being released, so even if someone takes an unauthorised copy of the video, they can't decrypt it.
It absolutely should not be up to the judgement of an individual in a highly emotionally charged situation to decide what should be recorded.
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hr and dispatch will have the schedules and should automatically turn the camera on for you at the beginning of your shift when you start so you can get paid to carry a gun and a badge. at the end of your shift, hr and dispatch will turn the camera off no matter what time of day it is.